Benefits Street's White Dee is on the Downing Street warpath

Wednesday 12 February 2014 14:39 BST

p44 mp MP Kwasi Kwarteng ES

Westminster, be prepared. White Dee has declared that she intends to stand as an MP at the next election. The foul-mouthed matriarch in Channel 4’s Benefits Street — real name Deirdre Kelly — has been so riled by Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng saying she wouldn’t be good enough that she’s risen to the challenge.

Writing in this week’s Spectator, she’s decided the strapline for her campaign already: “From Benefits Street to Downing Street”.

White Dee has become famous as the heart of the Birmingham estate where the documentary about the lives of an impoverished community is filmed. When she suggested an interest in politics, Kwarteng slapped her down in a Sunday Star column. “She’s not a particularly good role model,” Kwarteng wrote. “I don’t think she’s someone that the majority of people would want to see represent them.”

“What a cheek!” Dee replies in the Spectator. “The fuss about Benefits Street means Ladbrokes has made me 50-1 to be the next MP for Birmingham Ladywood, and until I read his patronising nonsense I wasn’t going to stand. Now I think I will.”

Kelly would go for the seat currently occupied by Labour’s Shabana Mahmood but won’t tie herself up as a party candidate. “As an independent MP, mind. How far will I get? Let’s see.”

“ She is what the country needs,” says Rachel Johnson, who met White Dee last week. “She is warm, funny and grounded and she knows more about real life than both frontbenches combined. But it would be sad if her election bumped one of our few non-white MPs — can’t she come to Kensington instead?”